Today I woke up early for my appointment at the Travel Clinic to get vaccines for southeast Asia. Very nice people but expensive: consultation (80), tetanus (15), typhoid (55). I opted not to get the rabies vaccine because it's a series (which I wouldn't be able to finish in NZ) and it's several hundred dollars! However, if I do get rabies, the first shot for treatment is two thousand dollars, apparently (in what currency, I don't know, proly NZD). Life is always a bit of a gamble, isn't it? So the doctor said to stay away from mammals! Even a scratch or a lick on an open cut would do it. Scary business. And I'm supposed to wear light colors, no fragrances, and float in a cloud of DEET to prevent mosquito bites so I would reduce my chances of getting malaria. Add it all up and you can see why I needed to have dim sum (yum char) afterwards with my friend Christine to celebrate simply being alive! [There are certainly nice things about travelling in an english-speaking, clean, nice country like NZ where I've never had to worry about the water or the chances of getting food-borne diseases. Speaking of which, because tourists drink only bottled water, the nurse said that region is littered with plastic bottles...sad.]
Dim sum at Majestic Restaurant was scrumptious. Very nice textures and flavours on par with SF Chinatown and San Jose. However, the hostess interrupted us at 12:45 to let us know we had overstayed our welcome, and pointed to our tab on which "12:15" was written! Neither one of us had seen that. Apparently people were waiting for our table. I've never seen such a thing! So we slooowly finished our tea.
Afterwards, we went over to Te Papa, the national museum of NZ, for a special exhibit on Pompeii. It was well done. Especially moving were the plaster casts of people in their final positions as they suffocated from Vesuvius' gases and ash...The volcano hadn't erupted in several hundred years, so they were caught by surprise in 76AD. About 2000 of the town's 15,000-20,000 people died. Many slaves and poor people. There was a wonderful 3D movie on this last fatal day showing the progression of events. You could see the flying ash and almost feel the somber terror of the people underneath the terra cotta rooftops. Besides that fateful day, the exhibit documented typical life in Pompeii. Few people had private baths in their houses, so they bathed in public bathhouses where, to get cleaned up, their skin was scraped by slaves using a monstrous looking metal scraper after an application of oils and pumice. This was before the time of soap. I love soap. Also, cleaners got togas white and sparkling clean by using ammonia, which comes from urine. So these shops had corner collection buckets for people to pee in. Now for dining, if you were rich and powerful, you got to eat while reclining as slaves passed you platters of food. The less fortunate had to eat sitting up. Now the people of Pompeii put graffiti up all over the place because it was a primary means of public expression. They were a very funny people as evidenced by this graffiti. One read, "If you don't believe in Venus, have you seen my girlfriend?"
Dim sum at Majestic Restaurant was scrumptious. Very nice textures and flavours on par with SF Chinatown and San Jose. However, the hostess interrupted us at 12:45 to let us know we had overstayed our welcome, and pointed to our tab on which "12:15" was written! Neither one of us had seen that. Apparently people were waiting for our table. I've never seen such a thing! So we slooowly finished our tea.
Afterwards, we went over to Te Papa, the national museum of NZ, for a special exhibit on Pompeii. It was well done. Especially moving were the plaster casts of people in their final positions as they suffocated from Vesuvius' gases and ash...The volcano hadn't erupted in several hundred years, so they were caught by surprise in 76AD. About 2000 of the town's 15,000-20,000 people died. Many slaves and poor people. There was a wonderful 3D movie on this last fatal day showing the progression of events. You could see the flying ash and almost feel the somber terror of the people underneath the terra cotta rooftops. Besides that fateful day, the exhibit documented typical life in Pompeii. Few people had private baths in their houses, so they bathed in public bathhouses where, to get cleaned up, their skin was scraped by slaves using a monstrous looking metal scraper after an application of oils and pumice. This was before the time of soap. I love soap. Also, cleaners got togas white and sparkling clean by using ammonia, which comes from urine. So these shops had corner collection buckets for people to pee in. Now for dining, if you were rich and powerful, you got to eat while reclining as slaves passed you platters of food. The less fortunate had to eat sitting up. Now the people of Pompeii put graffiti up all over the place because it was a primary means of public expression. They were a very funny people as evidenced by this graffiti. One read, "If you don't believe in Venus, have you seen my girlfriend?"
I made a beautiful veggie and goat cheese pizza with homemade crust.Other accomplishments: I finally sorted out a rough itinerary for southeast Asia and bought plane tickets. An unexpected surprise is I'm spending a week in Malaysia! Hadn't planned on it, but the plane flys into Kuala Lumpar from Perth, so I'm taking advantage of the opportunity.
Quiz time: Who remembers the strategic significance of the Strait of Malacca from their World History?
Quiz time: Who remembers the strategic significance of the Strait of Malacca from their World History?
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